St James' Cathedral is a heritage-listed cathedral of the Anglican Diocese of North Queensland at 36 Cleveland Terrace, Townsville, City of Townsville, Queensland, Australia. It was designed by Arthur Blacket and was built in 1887 by MacMahon & Cliffe. It was added to the Queensland Heritage Register on 21 October 1992.
Built atop Melton Hill the large red-brick structure is a well-known landmark of the Townsville central business district.
History
St James Cathedral was erected in two stages, 1887–1892 and 1959–1960, for the Anglican Diocese of North Queensland.
Prior to the construction of a church, Anglican services in Townsville were conducted at the court house.
The first Anglican church was established on Melton Hill, purchased with the aid of parishioners at a sale of crown lands and work began on the on 24 May 1871. The structure was constructed of weatherboard with a shingle roof.
When Townsville was established in the mid-1860s, its Anglican parishioners were part of the Diocese of Sydney. In 1878 the diocese of North Queensland was created, based at St James' Church in Townsville. The new diocese's first bishop George Henry Stanton was appointed on 24 June 1878. Stanton did not immediately go to Townsville but spent several months in England, trying to raise funds and attract clergy for the new diocese. He finally arrived in Townsville in May 1879, preaching his first service on 21 May 1879. Having become the cathedral of the new diocese, St James' Church was enlarged, extending the nave and north and south aisles in 1880 and an organ, donated by a Miss SE Holland (an English friend of Bishop Stanton), was added to the church in 1884.
Plans for a new and larger cathedral began on 5 August 1883 when members of the church formed a committee to raise the funds. The proposal to build a cathedral was approved by a church synod in 1884 and the Cathedral Building Committee was appointed. The intention initially was to have the cathedral designed by John Horbury Hunt. However, in 1885, Arthur Blacket of Sydney, son of Edmund Blacket (he New South Wales colonial architect) was commissioned to design a building to be erected on the church land behind the existing weatherboard structure. The initial designs called for a cathedral constructed of sandstone with granite columns which would hold 1000 parishioners. The nave would be wide, transepts would be wide and the total interior length from chancel to bell tower would be . Many features of these designs were rejected upon review by the diocese and three revisions were necessary before a final plan was approved. The final design was for a church built in stone, with a low wide central tower which would act as a ventilation shaft, and a single tower at the northern door. It was to cost £24,000, but would be built in sections.
Early in 1887 the diocese called for tenders for the construction of the cathedral. The foundation stone was laid on the Golden Jubilee of Queen Victoria on 27 June 1887, and the building was erected by Townsville contractors MacMahon & Cliffe. Subsequent financial constraints forced changes to the design, and the cathedral was constructed in brick, with concrete facings, a temporary roof and no towers.
With the completion of the building's foundations in November 1887, building work stalled due to a lack of funding. Following protracted dispute between the Sydney architect and the church building committee, Arthur Blacket's services were dispensed with in 1890. Work resumed in 1891 with the Townsville architect Walter Morris Eyre to oversee the final stages of construction; Eyre had been acting as supervising architect since the commencement of building. In order to reduce the cost of the structure the original plans to construct the building of sandstone were revised and the building was constructed of red brick with concrete taking the place of marble and granite.
Due to the lack of funding the decision was made to only construct half of the cathedral, with the other half to be completed at a later date. The apse, chancel, transepts and part of the nave and flanking arcades were built with a temporary roof constructed overhead. In 1892 the pipe organ was moved from the church to the new cathedral. This first stage of the cathedral was consecrated on 27 October 1892 by the second Bishop of North Queensland, Christopher Barlow. Although invited, Bishop Stanton was unable to attend.
On 26 January 1896, Cyclone Sigma struck Townsville; however, the cathedral was relatively unaffected by this.
Between 1900 and 1902 a second organ was purchased from North Ward, and the two were coupled together until rebuilt as one instrument in 1958.